tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71057182018-02-14T22:48:59.815+00:00Reading in ReykjavíkThe reviews and rantings of a Bibliophile living in Reykjavik, capital of Iceland. Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.comBlogger1458125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-38398851771904433422018-01-08T15:04:00.001+00:002018-01-08T15:04:21.783+00:00Who knew knitting could be so dangerous...<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-6812212731690112702017-11-30T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-30T10:00:08.719+00:00Review: You Are Awful (But I Like You) by Tim MooreFull title: You Are Awful (But I Like You): Travels Through Unloved Britain.
I was in Manchester (the one in England) earlier in the month and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the Christmas markets, visiting the John Rylands Library, doing a spot of Christmas shopping and eating good food. I only managed to visit one bookshop, and when I can't visit more than one, I try to make it count and Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-57564010060456795372017-11-28T11:00:00.000+00:002017-11-28T11:00:21.599+00:00Review: The Soul of an Octopus by Sy MontgomeryI love to read popular science books and have a small collection of them. Two of them are about sea creatures that I found charming and interesting enough to keep and was hoping that The Soul of an Octopus might become the third book in this small sub-collection.
However, the title should have been a clue that it wouldn't be. I was hoping the book would be the balanced mixture of natural historyBibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-81536330172754670482017-10-26T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-26T10:44:06.991+00:00Wrapping up the What's in a Name reading challenge
I always have fun doing the What's in a Name reading challenge, and this year was no exception. I signed up for it on July 28, and it took me just under two weeks to read and review the first five books - and 2 1/2 months to find, read and review the sixth and last book.
I posted my first review on August 1, the day after I finished it, and the last one I posted on October 22, two days Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-24731386842316388782017-10-24T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-24T10:00:41.411+00:00Just finished my 100th book of the year!...which is hardly news, except in the last couple of years, around this time of the year, I was somewhere in the mid-to-high 200s. Cutting back on my reading has resulted in more enjoyment of the books I read and I also remember them better. I am also listening to more audio books, and have finished 20 so far.Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-15505337589375779322017-10-23T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-23T10:00:01.627+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #6: 1968 by Mark KurlanskyWhat's in a Name challenge category: A number in figures in the title
Author: Mark Kurlansky.
Full title: 1968: The Year that Rocked the World
Genre: History
Published: 2004
One would think that finding a book with a number in the title would be easy in a book collection as large as mine, but it wasn't. I only found two among my 700+ TBR stack and ended up reading this one because my Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-27610437907253647462017-10-20T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-20T10:00:11.301+00:00Friday links, 20. October 2017
Friday links is where I post links to blogs and websites I want to
remember without cluttering up my browser bookmarks, along with
interesting articles, reviews and lists I want to bring to the notice of
others, and other stuff I find on the web.
I took an unplanned break from blogging because I got roped into doing some teaching and preparing for that stuff is time-consuming. I have been Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-39340221642619347132017-10-18T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-19T21:45:54.673+00:00Review: The Devil's Detective by Simon Kurt Unsworth<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-31430480572286679862017-09-08T10:00:00.000+00:002017-09-08T10:00:30.287+00:00Friday Links, 8 September 2017
Friday links is where I post links to blogs and websites I want to
remember without cluttering up my browser bookmarks, along with
interesting articles, reviews and lists I want to bring to the notice of
others, and other stuff I find on the web.
I should be in Germany by now, after a short visit to Alsace in France.
Here's today's mixed bag of links:
Do you like art? Here's some lovely Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-31695970334923591292017-09-01T10:00:00.000+00:002017-09-01T10:00:09.769+00:00Friday links 1 September 2017
Friday links is where I post links to blogs and websites I want to remember without cluttering up my browser bookmarks, along with interesting articles, reviews and lists I want to bring to the notice of others, and other stuff I find on the web.
Is there a better way to declare your love of reading than to
carry around a book or two and read whenever you get a moment? But what
about Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-22502262896059359692017-08-18T10:00:00.000+00:002017-08-18T10:00:13.655+00:00Friday links, 18 August 2017
Let's begin with an interesting article about my own profession: translation. Zack Davisson translates manga - Japanese comic books - and the process is considerably more creative than you might think: Confessions of a Manga Translator. The process he describes is similar to the process I have been able to deduct from reading the European Tintin, Lucky Luke and Asterix comics in different Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-71734045767910211012017-08-11T10:00:00.000+00:002017-08-11T10:00:21.697+00:00Friday links, 11 August 2017
Today's Friday links are a mixed bag, but all of them pertain to books and reading:
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Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-38916382600283735062017-08-10T09:00:00.000+00:002017-08-10T09:46:32.592+00:00Ah-choo!Ugh! I am trying to finish the What's in a Name challenge by reading a book with a number in numbers in the title, and decided Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury would be a fine ending to the challenge.
I have an anthology containing 5 Bradbury novels that I bought second hand and have been intending to read for a while, so I dug it out from the back of my TBR bookcase and started reading, only to Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-18979144147691777442017-08-09T09:00:00.000+00:002017-08-09T09:02:38.036+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #5: Alexandria by Nick Bantock What's in a Name challenge category: The letter X in the title.
Author: Nick Bantock.
Full title: Alexandria: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of
Griffin & Sabine Unfolds.
Genre: Fantasy.
Published:2002
Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me your thoughts about it?
This is going to be somewhat of an unusual review, as the book is the middle volume of a trilogyBibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-75395564199147111312017-08-08T10:00:00.000+00:002017-08-08T10:00:23.246+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #4: A Knife at the OperaAlthough the What's in a Name reading challenge places no
restriction on whether or not you own the books you read, I decided to try to
use only books I already owned - preferably ones I had not already read -
in fulfilling the challenge. This proved somewhat difficult, as it
turned out that among my 700+ TBR books I only owned one book that had
an item of cutlery in the title, and in the Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-86636621772540615992017-08-06T12:34:00.001+00:002017-08-06T12:34:09.106+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #3: West With the Night
Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me how you liked it 😊
What's in a name challenge category: Compass direction.
Author: Beryl Markham.
Genre: Memoir.
Originally published: 1942.
Beryl Markham was a remarkable woman. She grew up on a farm in Kenya and learnt to train racehorses from her father, working at that profession intermittently throughout her life and becomingBibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-10583765480647765422017-08-04T11:00:00.000+00:002017-08-04T11:00:23.526+00:00Friday links 4 August 2017
I haven't done one of these in months, but I have some links stored up, so it's time for another round of Friday links. I also though I needed a label for it.
I love to see how other people keep track of their reading, and this article lays out one method and links to two more: The ultimate reading spreadsheet. BTW, I also use a spreadsheet, and it's considerably more detailed than the one Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-61129291403462412392017-08-03T08:48:00.001+00:002017-08-03T08:48:47.167+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #2: Dr. Mütter's Marvels
Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me how you liked it?
What's in a Name challenge category: Alliterative title.
Author: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Sub-title: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine.
Genre: Biography/history.
First published: 2014.
The 19th century saw many revolutionary changes in medicine, and Thomas Dent Mütter was one of Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-55752073896423208362017-08-01T13:21:00.001+00:002017-08-01T13:21:40.607+00:00What's in a Name challenge review #1: Howl's Moving Castle
Have you read this book? Why not leave a comment to tell me how you liked it 😊
What's in a Name challenge category: A building.
Author: Diana Wynne Jones (1934-2011).
Genre: Fantasy, children's book.
First published: 1986.
I have long been a fan of the Hayao Miyazaki animated movie of Howl's Moving Castle, but I didn't become aware that it was based on a book until the author, Diana Wynne Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-14913660159289633212017-07-28T10:00:00.000+00:002017-10-20T11:36:47.819+00:00What's In A Name Reading Challenege 2017 sign-up postI decided to participate in this challenge once more, if only to encourage me to review some books.
This is the tenth year this challenge runs and it continues to be fun and challenging enough to be interesting while not being too long or too difficult to finish (unlike this one, which I was briefly tempted to participate in).
I will strike out each category as I finish the books, and post Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-6504334399350338502017-06-16T10:00:00.000+00:002017-07-28T09:54:35.862+00:00Friday links, 14 April 2017Here's some reading about literacy, libraries and books:
Interesting (and rather long) essay about The Rising Tide of Educated Aliteracy.
This sounds like it will be a cool library once it's ready: The mountains, the books, a place of rest and reading: AColorado couple’s quest to create a land library. You can help the project along by supporting their Kickstarter campaign.
Books people buy to Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-7567775539383832812017-04-07T10:00:00.000+00:002017-04-07T10:00:37.248+00:00Friday links, 7 April 2017Today's links are a varied mix:
I came across this article by Neil Gaiman and thought it was worth recommending: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming.
Superlatives make me uneasy, but there's no denying the book shops in this article are unusual: The 10 Most Unconventional Bookstores In The World.
Interesting article about The Mysterious Ancient Origins of the Book.Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-86694345209916490282017-03-24T08:00:00.000+00:002017-03-24T08:00:16.391+00:00Friday links, 24 February 2017I have been pretty inactive on this blog lately, mostly because I have
hardly been reading. However, I have done some web surfing and here are
some of the things I found:
An interesting article about the oldest libraries around the world.
A literary guide to Paris.
And London.
An essay about book shame.
One woman's (failed) quest to visit every book shop in New York city.
Today'sBibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-75676489426849369902017-03-17T08:00:00.000+00:002017-03-17T08:00:06.821+00:00Friday links, 17 March 2017Today's links are all book-related in some way, and three of them relate to libraries:
Some Spectacular German Libraries. I must admit that the first one on the list doesn't appeal to me at all - I prefer libraries to be warm and friendly and this just looks blindingly white and sterilised, a triumph of design and functionality over friendliness and comfort.
An interesting bit of history: The Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7105718.post-24940373106431178522017-03-10T10:00:00.000+00:002017-03-13T10:39:54.688+00:00Friday links, 10 March 2017Some very mixed links today:
This doesn't spare the superlatives: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Might Be The Highest Form ofLiterature on the Planet. Sounds a bit overblown, doesn't it? But there's an explanation: The author of the article explains.
Here's some magnificent book art. It's for sale, too!
About an author I like: Angela Carter’s Feminist Mythology.
For cookbook fans: Bibliophilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10960676264710788969noreply@blogger.com0